Review of The Science of Sleep (2006) by Eric S — 25 Mar 2009

Anyone expecting 'eternal sunshine' will be mildly disappointed in this, but once you accept that gondry is painting on a smaller canvas here, you will be quickly won over. every second of the film is stamped with gondry's whimsical and clever approach to filmmaking.

mixing animation, stop motion, green-screen, and all sorts of clever (and often very low-fi) tricks, he turns the medium on its head, while simultaneously exploring the nature of dreams and consciousness.

this film has the feel of a woody allen romantic comedy on lsd. great dialogue, quirky characters, and great chemistry. you get the feel that gondry could have taken this film to another level -- it has a sense of slapped-togetheredness that is part intentional and partly due to gondry's restless nature as a writer (his best work, I think, are the works he did not write).

but it's altogether witty, inventive, visually compelling, sweet, and quite memorable.